


Better Than I Was

by EveryDay_ALittleMore



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Brain Damage, Canon?, Captivity, Clingy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Head Injury, Hurt, Hurt Steve McGarrett, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Permanent Injury, Sort Of, Team as Family, Trauma, Who's she?, Worried Danny, unbetad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 10:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30104865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryDay_ALittleMore/pseuds/EveryDay_ALittleMore
Summary: Held in captivity and tortured, the Five-O team finds Steve after a long and grueling search.But he's not the same man they used to know.Can they help Steve recover from his trauma? And can Danny cope with the idea that his friend is gone forever?
Relationships: Five-0 Team & Steve McGarrett, Steve McGarrett & Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	Better Than I Was

**Author's Note:**

> Oh-kay. So here's the deal. This is unfinished.   
> I'd like to finish it, as I would with all my unfinished works, but my brain just stopped on this one. I'm hoping that maybe some comments, con-crit, what have you, will get the old noggin spinning again and I'll be able to push forward on this.   
> That's what I hope. But whether or not it will happen? That's something else entirely.  
> So, if you still want to read this after reading this note, please keep in mind that it may stay an ambiguous one-shot for the time being.

It had been weeks without any leads on Steve’s whereabouts, Danny and the rest of the Five-O team running around frantically on the search for the slightest hint of where their friend could be held—but nothing.  
The reason for the man’s abduction was given in a short video sent a few days after Steve’s disappearance. It showed a badly beaten Steve strapped to a metal chair in a windowless room, duct tape across his mouth—the very sight had Danny clenching his fists so tightly his nails cut into the skin, jaw clenched shut, vein throbbing on his head.  
“Look at your leader. Look at him. He is in this position because all of the Five-O task force didn’t know when to stop meddling in affairs that are none of their concern. You all ruined me—my family, my livelihood—all of that’s gone because of you!” The unseen speaker, voice modulated, growled, incensed. “Don’t worry about Commander Steve McGarrett—I’ll let you know how he’s doing—in great detail.”  
The video shut off.  
But even spurred on as they were by the ominous video, they couldn’t seem to find a trace of the mystery abductor.  
And then—in one of the weekly videos that showed the deterioration of Steve’s health, the bastard made a mistake. There was a stack of crates in the background that Jerry was able to determine the origin by a broken packaging stamp.  
After that there was a flood of activity to track down all shipments of the crates, which carried sugarcane, and after four dead-ends they found a restaurant that occupied the bottom two floors of a building, the basement was a flood of machinery and old packaging material—and one Calvin de Costa who didn’t even have time to draw his gun before he was being tackled to the ground by a determined blonde haired detective.  
“Where is he?” He demanded after landing several solid punches, wrenching the man’s arm further up his back.  
“Agh!” The man gasped in pain. “Go to hell!” He snarled.  
Danny slammed the man’s head on the ground. “Where. Is. He?” He repeated, eyes flashing dangerously.  
“Danny! I think I found something.” Kono called out from somewhere further in the maze of piping and old junk.  
Chin, who was standing by in case Danny did something—Steve-like—hurried over as Danny reluctantly handed over their prisoner to two HPD cops. “Stay here.” He told them tersely as he followed Chin’s lead—he might still have to beat that bastard to a pulp if they didn’t find Steve.  
Kono was standing at a locked metal door, busy examining the suspiciously new padlock adorning it. “I was going to shoot it off, but this thing is meant to last.” She said waving a hand to it, brow wrinkled. “We’re gonna need some bolt cutters—unless one of you two can pick it?”  
Danny frowned and called back to the remaining HPD officers. “We need bolt cutters! As in today, hurry it up!”  
His frown deepened as he paced impatiently in front of the door, not sure if he wanted to find out what was behind the door but at the same time hoping that Steve was alive.  
After what seemed like ages, an HPD cop rushed over with bolt cutters in hand.   
Danny snatched them from his hand and cut through the lock, tossing it aside carelessly as he wrenched the door open.  
The sight within made his heart seize up—  
“Steve—“ Danny almost whispered, instantly dropping down to his knees next to his friend who had been shoved into a closest barely big enough for him to stretch out his legs. From the smell of things and the state of the rags on his body, he hadn’t been able to use the bathroom during his several week long stay, thus forced to lay in his own filth. The man’s hair was longer and laying in greasy strands. Blood, both old and new stained his clothes and added to the pungent odor that wafted out of the closet. Both hands were shackled to the wall, forcing him into the oddly curled up position he was currently in.  
Reaching out a shaky hand, Danny felt for a pulse, Chin and Kono watching anxiously.  
“I’ve got a pulse, he’s alive—get EMS in here NOW!” He ordered as he let out a shaky breath, Kono and Chin following suit.   
“I’ll speed them along.” Kono said hurrying away with suspiciously shiny eyes.  
Chin squeezed Danny’s shoulder comfortingly as the detective reached out and brushed Steve’s lank hair from his forehead. “We got him.”  
“We got him.” Danny repeated, hand resting on Steve’s shoulder as he looked over at Chin. “Get that bastard out of my sight because if I see him again I will put a bullet through his—“  
“Danno?”  
Danny jerked and looked down to where Steve was blinking up at him sluggishly, chains rattling as he tried to reach towards him.  
“Steve?” Danny shifted as Steve struggled to get to a sitting position. “Hey, hey, I don’t think you should be moving right now, EMS is on the way, okay?”  
“Danno, knew you’d come.” Steve mumbled as he ignored Danny’s advice and managed to sit up, blinking back tears. “Knew you’d come—“  
Before Danny could affirm this—because of course he’d come after him—Steve jerked forward, burying his head in the crook between Danny’s neck and shoulder.  
Knowing that whatever was done to him to get the SEAL to this vulnerable state had to be bad, Danny wrapped his arms protectively around the trembling man, one hand cradling the back of his head as Steve sobbed. “Hey, I will always come for you, Steve. You got my back I got yours, you know that.”  
“Hurts, Danno. Hurts.” Steve whimpered, hands rattling the chains once more as he tried to reach Danny.  
“I know, I know.” Danny craned his head to look over at where Chin was watching sadly. “Where the hell are the paramedics?” He muttered, rubbing Steve’s back cautiously, not wanting to exacerbate any possible injuries. Steve sniffled and attempted to burrow his head in further, trying to make his now thin frame even smaller. Danny stroked his filthy hair soothingly.  
“I’ll go s—“ Chin was cut off by the timely arrival of Kono followed closely behind by two paramedics.  
Suddenly cursing himself, realizing that the bolt cutters were still laying on the ground next to him, Danny pulled away from Steve with the intention of removing his shackles only to be met with resistance in the form of the SEAL.  
“NO! Danno, no, don’t go, don’t go—don’t—“ Steve cried out brokenly, uselessly trying to restrain the other man from leaving, watery bloodshot brown eyes locking onto blue ones desperately.  
Danny didn’t hesitate to return to his previous position, arms once more wrapping around Steve protectively, something in his gut twisting viciously at the pathetic tone of voice coming from possibly the strongest man he knew. “Not going anywhere, Steve. I’m here—I’m right here.” He gave the paramedics a warning look as one crouched down by them, hands raised in a mollifying gesture.  
“Hey, commander. I’m going to get these shackles off of you, all right?”  
Steve turned to watch the man with wide eyes, arms flinching away from his touch. “No! Don’t touch me!”  
The paramedic looked to Danny for help.  
“Steve, you don’t want to stay in this little room forever, do you? You need those shackles off and—“ Here Danny paused so that he could read the man’s name tag. “William here is going to help you with that, okay? Just let him do his job, all right? Then we can get out of here.”  
Apparently trusting Danny’s word, Steve bit his lip and tucked his head once more against Danny. Taking this for a go ahead, William reached out carefully and cut the shackle chains, freeing Steve’s arms though the shackles around his wrist would have to be cut off at the hospital.  
The moment his hands were free, Steve pulled his arms close to himself, hiding them between his and Danny’s bodies.  
“We need to examine him.” William murmured.  
Danny nodded. Bracing himself, he pulled away from Steve, keeping his hands on either side of his face when a look of panic crossed the other man’s face. “Steve, you gotta listen to me—William needs to check you over, see how you’re doing, but I’ll be right here, I swear. I’m gonna be right here, huh? You with me?”  
Steve swallowed convulsively, blinking back sudden tears but he nodded. “Yeah, I’m with you.” He paused, eyes searching Danny’s face. “You’ll stay?”  
“Of course I’ll stay. You ready?”  
After another moment of hesitation, Steve finally nodded again, Danny patting the side of his face reassuringly before standing up, his bad knee twinging warningly.  
William and his partner—a red haired woman name Teresa—quickly and efficiently examined him, starting up an IV.  
Halfway through, Steve gave a whimper, eyes desperate as he raised a trembling hand towards where Danny stood. Instantly Danny went and held onto his hand, feeling as Steve calmed enough for the paramedics to finish up.  
William helped Danny get Steve to his feet, the taller man sagging heavily on the shorter detective as they made their way out of the basement and to the waiting ambulance.  
It went without saying that Danny would accompany Steve to the hospital, Chin and Kono wrapping up the case before meeting them there.  
Danny held Steve’s hand the whole time, trying to keep the concerned look from his face as Steve looked at him with equal parts fear/trust/relief. Something was off with his friend—at first he thought maybe he’d been drugged, but the paramedics couldn’t confirm this, they did tell him that Steve had sustained a substantial head injury that had undergone minimal treatment around two weeks ago.  
Left with his own thoughts as Steve drifted in and out of consciousness, the rest of the trip to the hospital seemed to last hours instead of minutes.  
Once inside the hospital they hit another snag—Steve became more lucid and was refusing to be parted from Danny, his fingers latching around Danny’s wrist in a vise-like grip. After Danny couldn’t convince him to let go, the nurse was forced to administer a sedative, Steve going limp moments after, fingers uncurling.  
Feeling like he’d betrayed him somehow, Danny paced the hallway agitatedly, barely remembering to give Kono and Chin an update.  
After what seemed like forever Steve’s doctor, a capable looking middle aged woman named Kalae Simpson, found him.  
“Detective Williams.” She shook his hand.   
“Danny. How’s Steve doing?”  
The woman smiled slightly. “Danny. I’m afraid I don’t have better news—we’ve discovered a slow bleed in Commander McGarrett’s brain, he’s being prepped for emergency surgery as we speak.”  
“A bleed. In his brain.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “How bad, doc?”  
Docter Simpson frowned slightly. “I’m afraid that since the bleed had been going untreated, there is a high chance that there will be permanent brain damage. We won’t know the extent of the damage until after the surgery.”  
Danny stared in shock, the rest of the doctor’s words about burn marks, broken ribs, bruises, lacerations and abrasions, going unheard.  
Brain damage.  
Permanent brain damage.  
Rubbing his face, self recriminations darting through his mind, Danny struggled to collect himself.  
Doctor Simpson laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.  
“I know this is a lot to take in, but as his emergency contact I wanted you to be informed as soon as possible. If he has any family I would notify them immediately.”   
Danny nodded mutely.  
“There’s always a chance that the damage won’t be as extensive as we originally thought, don’t give up hope.” The doctor told him encouragingly before glancing at her watch. “I have to go—but I promise that as soon as we know anything, you’ll be informed.”  
Giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, she headed back down the hall and disappeared through a pair of swinging double doors.  
Sinking down into the nearest chair, Danny rested his head in his hands and tried to get a handle on the chaos that was his mind before he had a meltdown in public.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it wasn't obvious, I am not a doctor or medical practitioner and any and all medical info is made up or as seen on TV.   
> Any helpful tips that can make my work seem more believable without being entirely medically accurate (because I do know that most serious head damage is accompanied by seizures which I really don't want to add in because then I'll go down the rabbit hole and get lost in research about seizures which I've done before for an epileptic character of mine) would be appreciated!  
> (I really need doctor buddy)


End file.
